


hope (just for tonight)

by jeeno2



Series: Fic Advent 2017 [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Episode: s01e14 The Christmas Invasion, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 10:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12886392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeeno2/pseuds/jeeno2
Summary: Tonight is Christmas. He'll worry about the future tomorrow.





	hope (just for tonight)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 31 days of ficmas challenge on doctorroseprompts' tumblr, and for Day 1 of my multi-fandom fic advent project. :)

The Doctor likes to think it takes a lot to rattle him.

And most of the time, he's right about that.

But the way Rose is looking at him right now, her eyes sparkling in the warm light of her mum’s flat, a slow smile spreading across her face so beautifully it would take his breath away if his respiratory bypass didn’t render such things impossible…

Well.   _That_  is enough all by itself to shake him to his very foundation.

The Doctor shoves his hands into his trouser pockets and preens like an idiot, not knowing what else to do and still getting used to this strange new body of his. He smiles back at her before he realizes he’s doing it, the strange, bubbly sensation rising up in his chest at once so intoxicating and glorious it takes all his formidable self-restraint not to throw himself at her feet on the spot.

“Sit next to me?” she asks. Shy, but insistent. His Rose. (Does he dare think of her as his?)

She pats the seat next to hers. He complies wordlessly, immediately.

He marvels, and not for the first time, at how eager this new incarnation is to please her.

(He decides to shove aside – just for now; just for tonight – the nagging worry that this unflagging devotion to Rose Tyler will one day lead to ruin. Because tonight is Christmas. A time for joy, for hope. For new beginnings. There will be more than adequate time for worry tomorrow.)

Once he’s joined her at the table Rose wastes no time, quickly tugging his hand onto her lap and stroking the back of it gently with her thumb, and then he really does stop breathing.

* * *

Later, the Doctor watches Rose pull her Christmas cracker apart. His eyes are filled with stars as she tries on the silly pink paper crown, her tongue-touched smile lighting up the room. 

And he watches her later still, after the news report about Harriet Jones, when they’re standing outside the TARDIS under a blanket of falling ash. (She still wants to travel with him. Will wonders never cease? He, of course, would love for her to come. Will  _always_  want her to come.) Her hand rests on his arm and their heads are inclined together, close, as he points out the stars and their next destination with an outstretched arm he hopes isn’t shaking too badly from nerves.

Rose is smiling at him again. Her smile is infectious – just like her laughter; her spirit; her faith in him. He pulls her in closer, until he can feel the warmth of her breath against his cheek. 

And he allows – just for tonight – the giddy hope Rose feels in this moment to roll over him and carry him along with the tide.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr as jeeno2 :)


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